ACADEMY REPORT| Young Exiles struggle as they fall to 4-1 defeat against strong Exeter City side

Our Young Exiles fell to a 4-1 defeat against Exeter at Cliff Hill, with Tom Hillman scoring the Exiles only goal in a tough game.

After a good start in the opening minutes, the side were handed a massive blow in the 4th minute when Joel Randall found himself free at the back post to receive a cross from the right-hand side and then calmly finished past ‘keeper Matt Mayor.

The away side then pushed Exeter for an equalizer in the next ten minutes with Hillman and Warman creating some good chances which weren’t capitalized on.

Despite the pressure County put on the home side, they were reminded that Exeter still posed a threat under pressure with James Dodd seeing a shot just end up wide.

Then in the 29th minute after some poor defending from a corner, Exeter had a second goal after their forward was in the right place to make it 2-0 to the hosts.

13 minutes later Exeter could have had a second had it not been for the brilliant reactions of Matt Mayor; he managed to tip the ball onto the crossbar after the ball had been deflected by one of his defenders.

County were then given a sucker-punch with Exeter scoring their 3rd goal of the game through forward Brandon Parsons whose right-footed strike went into the top corner.

A strong start to the 2nd half for County saw Tom Hillman score past Felix Norman six minutes into the second half after Michael Cook and Hillman caused several problems for their defence early in the half.

Evan Press then came closest to scoring a second for County after trying to curl a shot into the top corner from 25 yards-out, but his shot wasn’t quite powerful enough and was dealt with by Norman in the 55th minute.

Both sides fought to get the next goal in the game for the next 15 minutes, however neither side could find a goal and in the 80th minute the Exiles were forced into a change after forward Lewis Collins picked up a head injury; Collins was replaced by Shay Snell.

The substitution was precautionary and Collins is not expected to miss any upcoming games due to the knock.

Despite their best efforts, the Young Exiles couldn’t find a vital second goal to get them back into the game and in the 84th minute all hope of a result was gone after Exeter’s forward lashed a shot into the top left corner to make it 4-1.

Captain Evan Press was substituted in the 86th minute for Lewis Johnson, but Newport couldn’t find another goal and fell to a 4-1 defeat away from home against Exeter.